A Long Way From DARE
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I had always paid attention in DARE
I swore I would never do drugs
Never drink
Never smoke
DARE was the purity ring of public school
I swore my purity ring would stay on until my wedding day, too
I left for work that day
Just a little early
Long enough to sit in the bush and smoke a Camel Wide
I heard a rustling behind me
Then maybe someone running
I turned and saw no one
I walked to work
Being underage and low on cigarettes
I picked up the butts with unsmoked tobacco portions
from the ashtrays of local restaurants
I put them in my nearly empty pack
When my mom picked me up from work
I knew she knew DARE hadn’t stuck
Apparently the rustling had been my little sister
My mom’s body was stiff as she drove me back to our temporary furnished condo
The condo we had to live in while Mom and Dad battled in court
About whether Mom could move us to the house in Texas
She bought with Nana’s life savings
Or not
My punishment wouldn’t be grounding
I could go anywhere I wanted
But nowhere without her
At least until she could no longer afford
The Texas mortgage
And the California rent
And had to leave my sister and I behind
With our dad
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CLS Sandoval
CLS Sandoval, PhD (she/her) is a pushcart nominated writer and communication professor with accolades in film, academia, and creative writing who speaks, signs, acts, publishes, sings, performs, writes, paints, teaches and rarely relaxes. She’s a flash fiction and poetry editor for Dark Onus Lit. She has presented over 50 times at communication conferences, published 15 academic articles, two academic books, three full-length literary collections, three chapbooks, as well as flash and poetry pieces in several literary journals, recently including Opiate Magazine, The Journal of Magical Wonder, and A Moon of One’s Own. She is raising her daughter and dog with her husband in Alhambra, CA.
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